I think you'll all be relieved to know...

[Grapefruitologist]

...I've been using ArtGem lately. Of course, I still use Paint, because ArtGem seems to lack some of the features of Paint, but I'm sort of using them both now.
So I wanted to know if you think I'm getting better at art now that I use two paint programs:
http://xs68.xs.to/pics/06070/critic.PNG
Sorry for how big it is.
The clouds, moons, seaweed and jellyfish I made in ArtGem, most of the characters and the squid I made in Paint, the old rubber glove and the bones I made in Artgem and Paint, and the wolf, fox, bonsai grapefruit tree, crawdads and flower I made by editing some pictures that an artist said I could use (but they are edited a lot, for example, I made the bonsai by taking a picture of a flower about 20X that size, shrinking it, inverting it, cutting it up and sticking the little chunks of pixels together. So I didn't copy it.) I didn't make the little background picture on the bottom (by the picture of the clouds), ScottDoom made it for the contribution thread, but I edited it to be a night time version, and put it there because of the sky I drew.
I'm going for a CMI sort of style for the clouds.
The first character, the penguin, is supposed to be (oddly enough) a tapdancing poisonous vampire penguin with golden fangs and claws... but he looks like a regular penguin to me.
I've already decided to start working on two other games, acctually, since my first one is going so well, so I'm sort of working on the first game, and its sequel, and a third game all at once...
The second character is supposed to be a pirate girl, about 11 or 12 years old. The third character is supposed to be a vampire boy, about 13 (who falls in love with the pirate girl...) The fourth is supposed to be a remake of Hailey, a teenage girl... but I rather like my first version still, so I'm saving this for the sequel (like MI did). The last one is supposed to be a Walmart employee.
Opinions?

[ManicMatt]

Your characters don't blend well with the clouds and sky, 'cos the sprites are blocky in comparison.

I like the clouds and swirly stuff, they look real nice, but I reckon hand drawn looking sprites would benefit well with the backgrounds.

[Grapefruitologist]

I can't hand-draw them (if you mean outside of the computer), because I don't have a scanner.
I'll probably be posting another picture here pretty soon, I just got an idea for a background.

[lo_res_man]

IMHO, I use paint for my charactors and objects and a combination of paint and Artgem for  backrounds. I dont't use it for sprites because, it has no curve tool.you may be thinking " who cares about the [insert explitive here] curve tool?!" but I find its very useful for creating smooth and round graphics that look smoother and less jagged then somethng made with say, the pencil tool. and how do I mean when I say I use "paint and Artgem" in combination? well, I use pant for the backbone, the starting lines and (if it was 3D) the wireframe.I then in artgem use the tools included to make better shadows, graduents, and anti-jaggednis. but I first design it in paint.

[Grapefruitologist]

That's how I draw them, too.

[Grapefruitologist]

I would've just edited my post, but considering this thread is a little old, instead of making a new thread I thought I might as well just bump it.
I drew a new background, using both Artgem and Paint. I think this is the best of my four backgrounds-it turned out exactly the way I wanted it.

Floor-Mart... well, what'd you think Walmart was built on?

[vict0r]

Err... Neither that cloud nor that sun really fits in there. And why does everything just turn blue after the sidewalk? You can even see the Floor mart and the zippo house sticking out off the edge

And why is the thin house all smudged out?

[Sam.]

its name had to be removed to protect the innocent.

[Grapefruitologist]

It's one of those antique buildings, with the name of some old 1800's company smudged out.

I knew that it looked like the buildings were leaning over the edge of the world, that's because the picture wasn't done yet.

Here's the finished picture:

The entrance to the alley is inbetween the thin antique building and FloorMart.
(There is no cloud because that I decided to make it an object that slowly floats across the sky... but I'm having trouble with the floating part. I think the sun and cloud fits in fine, I want a little contrast.)

[Paper Carnival]

It's a nice background, but the sun still just doesn't fit. Never use gradients like that, especially in a background like this. Also, the sky is too dark to have a full sun.